ZETDC warns of falling-tree power cuts
ZETDC  says the anticipated power outages might take longer to address

ZETDC says the anticipated power outages might take longer to address

Africa Moyo Property Reporter
The Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC), has told its consumers to brace for rolling power outages, mainly driven by the perennial challenges that come with the rainy season. During the rainy season, the electricity infrastructure – particularly cables and poles – is affected usually by falling trees.

ZETDC – a subsidiary of Zesa Holdings, which is responsible for distributing power to consumers – yesterday said the anticipated power outages might take longer to address. Already, a number of electricity consumers across the country are going without power due to faults, usually on transformers.

“. . . Zesa would like to advise its valued consumers countrywide that the onset of the rainy season has seen some heavy lightning, thunderstorms, flooding and falling trees on the electricity distribution network resulting in the damage to infrastructure and disruption of supplies.

“The power utility further advises that due to the heightened number of electrical outages, some faults may take longer to restore than is normally the case. Customers are encouraged to report the location of fallen trees on power lines to their nearest Customer Service Centre in order to expedite the restoration of supplies,” said ZETDC in a statement.

Apart from negatively impacting on power supplies, the rainy season also results in some people being electrocuted, mainly when they try to fix the problems on their own. ZETDC said in the interest of public safety, consumers must not attempt to repair faults or interfere with electricity infrastructure as that may lead to deaths or serious injuries.

In the first quarter of 2017, power consumers grappled with power outages that took longer to resolve due to the incessant rains that hit the country. The effect of the rains was felt by both domestic and commercial electricity users. Metallon Gold Zimbabwe, the country’s biggest gold miner, indicated that it had lost 428 hours of working time from November 2016 to February this year due to power outages.

The power challenges were largely caused by faults in electricity distribution because of heavy rains that pounded most parts of the country since late last year. Small-scale miners also lost production time and consequently resulted in low deliveries to Fidelity Printers and Refiners.

The fears for power outages come at a time when ZETDC has a backlog of almost 1700 transformers, which have to be replaced, after they were damaged by vandals that drain transformer oil.

Meanwhile, to stem the damage of electricity infrastructure, ZETDC has begun installing alarms at transformers in some parts of the country to fight the menace.

The alarms have been designed in such a way that when a person gets closer to a transformer, they would be triggered, prompting the rapid response team and ZETDC officials to spring into action.

ZETDC managing director Engineer Julian Chinembiri, recently told The Herald Property that they are also forging closer ties with communities in a desperate bid to curtail vandalism of key electricity infrastructure.

Foreign currency shortages in the country – which are impacting negatively on most sectors of the economy – are also hampering the importation of raw materials used in the manufacture of transformers.

Zesa Enterprises (Zent) – another subsidiary of Zesa Holdings – is responsible for the production of transformers, but is unable to perform the function due to foreign currency shortages. Over 16 000 electricity clients have gone for some time without power after transformers in their areas were vandalised.

From January 2016 to August this year, ZETDC said power infrastructure worth $4,1 million was lost due to theft and vandalism. ZETDC’s loss control department, together with other security agents, recovered equipment worth $600 000. Between January and August this year, 1 599 cases of vandalism were recorded.

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